The wedding - early morning

Its 5.30 am
on the day of the wedding.  When we went
to bed last night at 11pm there were still 50 or so people outside involved in
preparations.  I thought it would quieten
down but all night long I could here continuous laughter and chopping of meat. 

Waree got
up at 4 am and by 5am I got up too as there seemed to be little point in trying
to sleep.  Outside was alive with people
working. The road has been blocked by the
scaffolding of an enormous stage they are building.

The ladies
are still laughing and chatting as they worked all night.  The main culprit is Hoo one of my favourites (who
lives opposite and I think is very pretty) together with Gek.  I told the ladies with sign language that they
had kept me awake all night with their chatter and laughter, which they though
was hilarious.

Waree told
me that they mix the ki (shit) of the buffalo with the meat as it is bitter and
presumably adds flavour.  I think its
actually the stomach contents and I photographed some green stuff they were
adding to the meat which they agreed was ki.  My vocabulary in Lao is not good enough to
distinguish between the contents of different parts of the buffalo’s digestive
tract. 

Then Hoo
showed me some white material (possibly tripe?) which Waree told me Hoo said
was (I will use the softer American term) “pussy” but Waree added that Hoo was “gohok” which
means “Lying” .  I took a photo of it and
one of the other ladies suggested something in Lao pointing to Hoo which I took
to mean that I should also photo that part of Hoo’s anatomy.  Everybody thought that this was very funny,
but I am not sure whether I got the joke right.  Anyway I took a photo of Hoo.

I am
drinking fresh coffee now in my studio.  There doesn’t seem to be a lot for me to do. I have been married enough times to know that
the groom’s roll is minimal.  He just
acts as a foil to the lovely bride and in this case pays for everything.

I will keep
taking photos until the photographer arrives at 7am and takes over my camera.  He is a professional and it will be
interesting to see if he is mastered my camera from the short lesson I gave him
the other day. 

Hoo preparing food

Contents of buffalo digestive system used with meat

Ladies cutting up meat all night long

Tau cutting up buffalo skin all night long

Dish of raw meat and ki

Hoo told me that this was Buffalo 'pussy'

Construction of the stage before dawn